Abstract:
The project that we have designed surrounds the topic of World War I.
We thought that this topic would be informational, interesting to the
students and easy to integrate into many different subjects.
The subjects that we covered were English, Reading and Physics.
We were able to integrate them by using the underlying theme of war and
tactics of war. Reading and English
were integrated through the literature that talked about not only the battles,
but the social and emotional struggles of the soldiers.
Physics was integrated through the real life experiences of the soldiers
and the physical attributes of the explosives used during that war.
The students were asked to participate in a variety of activities that
were highly engaging and taught the students the many different features of
World War I. Throughout the
project, the many different needs and learning styles of students with special
needs were taken into consideration. Each
lesson was given specific instruction to implement if and when a student with
special needs came into consideration. What
we came up with was an integrated unit that satisfies every type of student with
every type of learning style. The
unit is interesting and thought provoking and demonstrates to the students how
devastating war can be.
Names and Majors of Team Members:
Tara Deminie – Special Education – LD/BD
Jennifer Kannberg – Special Education – DHH
Tristi Carpenter – English
Nicole Abrams – English
Paul Fraser – Physics
Subjects Integrated
Reading: Farewell to Arms,
“Hills like White Elephants:” Literature from the WWI era
Writing: Life of a World War I
soldier
Physics: Real Life: discuss hitting
targets and the Physical Science examples from WWI
Objectives:
English
At the end of this unit students should be able to:
Discuss major events of the 1920’s
Evaluate the impact of WWI on the life of a soldier
Use the internet to do research
Use their writing as a way to explore new ideas and topics
Reading
At the end of this unit students should be able to:
Understanding of how authors wrote in the 1920’s, with the emphasis on
Hemingway
Develop internet skills as well as group discussion skills
Learn about different aspects of war
Physics
Distinguish between a scalar and a vector.
Add, subtract, multiply and divide vectors using the graphical method.
Definitions of: scalar, vector, resultant, distance, and displacement.
The students will be able to
calculate a vector’s components.
The students will be able to break the velocity of a projectile into its
components.
Rationale:
An integrated unit allows for collaboration across the different subjects
and enhances the student’s learning about the topic. The collaborative learning experience is important because it
reinforces the ideas surrounding the topic in different curricular areas.
By doing this the student will be able to draw connections between
subjects and have a better understanding of the topic from different points of
view and interests.
Resources Needed:
English
Markers / crayons / colored pencils
Hemingway website
Computers
Journals for travel journal project
Study guide
Cardstock for magazine project
Reading
A Farewell to Arms
Short story “ Hills Like White Elephants”
Computer with internet access
Video Tape of In Love and War
Special Adaptations for students see above (writing lesson)
Physics
Rubber stopper
table tennis ball
Unit Description:
English lesson
Day One
Introduction to the 1920’s
Discuss with students the major events of the 1920’s, i.e. World War I,
prohibition, trends, travel movements, etc.
Introduce Magazine project: The
class will work as a publishing team to create a magazine that highlights the
1920s in America and important events from the era.
Much of the information for this project will come from research.
Articles will, however, contain information that is fictional. While students
must base the majority of their writing on factual events and information, there
is some freedom in this project to be creative and adventurous.
Each student must write one article for the magazine. Articles are due on
Friday. I will then compile the
articles into magazine form.
Evaluation: Participation
All lessons in this unit relate to the
physics unit in that the physics class will be discussing ideas that relate to
WW I, such as the projectile motion of bullets. This ties into my lessons because we will be discussing other
aspects of WWI.
This lesson relates to the literature class because my magazine project will
help to give students the background knowledge they will need to understand Farewell
to Arms.
Day Two
Research day Magazine Project
Evaluation: Participation within groups
Day Three
Brief discussion about WWI and soldiers’ lives during the war
Living conditions
Stress of fighting
Loneliness
Ways of coping
Assignment: Students will pretend that they are a soldier in WWI and
write a letter home expressing their life and emotions
Evaluation: A letter grade will be assigned for the letter home.
This lesson relates
to the literature class because they are reading about the life of a WWI
soldier. My project gives them
hands-on experience of what life as a soldier would have been like.
Day
Four
Writing day for Magazine Project.
Evaluation: Participation within groups
Day Five
Collect Magazine Project
Talk about Internet project that will be in conjunction with Nicole Abram’s
literature class and discuss what will be expected of them in my writing class
for the project.
Activity:
Bring students to computer lab and direct them to the Hemingway research
website.
Each student will look at the possible paper topics and explore the links to get
more information about the topics.
Each student should pick the topic they like best and write up a one-page paper
proposal stating why they would like to explore this topic and what their ideas
for the paper are.
Evaluation: Each student will receive a grade (1-5) on his or her
proposal, based on its completeness.
This lesson relates
to the literature class because the students will be working on this project in
both classes.
Day
Six
Research and writing day for Internet project
Individual conferences with each student to answer questions about the project
and to give feedback and advice on the student’s proposal.
Day Seven
Discussion of the travel movement of the 1920’s
Short discussion of where students would like to travel if they could
Introduction to Travel Journal Project
Each student will pick a destination he or she would like to travel to
Each student will then research their destination and compile a travel journal
including the following:
Cover Page including pictures, maps, etc. from the journey
Travel Companions: choose one person
to make the journey with you
and explain why you chose him/her.
Supply list: Make a list of ten
essential supplies you would take on your trip.
Destinations: Where will you go?
Why?
Essential Cities/Stops: List six
essential places you would visit in your travels. With each essential city, explain what you would visit there
and why.
Trip Itinerary: Your trip will last
two weeks. Create a day-by-day
itinerary for your trip. What will
you do each day?
Travel Journals: Your trip will be
documented by six one-page journal entries that detail your travels and
experiences.
Postcards: You will create five
postcards from your journey, and you will write a brief message on each to a
friend, etc.
Journals will be due on Friday
Evaluation: A letter grade will be assigned for each journal
This lesson sets
students up for “Hills Like White Elephants”, which they will be reading in
their literature class.
Day
Eight
Research and writing day for travel journals
Evaluation: Participation
Day Nine
Students will be given a study guide on “Hills Like White Elephants”.
They will have the entire class period to answer the questions in groups.
Day Ten
Collect Travel Journals
Short essay exam on “Hills Like White Elephants”
Students will be given 3 essay topics to pick from, all of which were present on
the study guide.
They have the class period to respond.
Evaluation: Exam will be worth 50 points.
Adaptations for students with special
needs.
Students with special
needs will be allowed to use Microsoft word for all assignments, this does not
allow room for spelling and handwriting error
The writing assignments will be broken into rough drafts, so I can give more
immediate feedback before assignment is due
I will allow for longer conference periods, meeting times, so the student can
receive further instruction and or understanding
Reading Lesson
I chose to use Hemingway as my main focus for our unit on WWI. Hemingway
wrote some of his best novels and short stories during the WWI and set quite a
few of his stories in this time period as well. He is a great American author and I think that by having my
students work with his pieces for two weeks they will be highly enriched with
valuable material. For this unit
the writing teacher and I have decided to work collaboratively.
In my class the students will read and discuss the literature as well as
do very small writing assignments and in Tristi Carpenter’s class the students
will write longer papers and work on written projects.
I will use the first day to introduce the time period as well as the
developments that took place during that period in literature.
The students will chose a development made in literature during the 1920s
and write a very short research paper (1 page).
The following day in literature the students will be introduced to Hemingway’s
background, the many genres he writes from, and his work.
The class will then participate in a discussion about their previous
experience with Hemingway in order for me the teacher to get a feel of how much
the students know about the author. During
the discussion the teacher should pay close attention to students with
disabilities and make them feel as comfortable as possible to participate.
Also, any notes the teacher uses to conduct the class should be Xeroxed
and handed to the student beforehand. Students will be given copies of the
unit’s novel A Farewell to Arms, which is a war based novel focusing
mainly on the medical workers, in literature class and asked to read chapters
1-10 by tomorrow. Special ed. Students will also be given a detailed copy of the
teachers’ notes on the novel in order to help them understand the text better.
Day three students will be given
information regarding characters, plot and setting with special emphasis on
medics in WWI. Students will be
given a writing assignment in Tristi Carpenter’s writing class.
By day four, students should have read through chapter 25 for the day’s
discussion. Special education
students should have read through chapter 20.
Students will be given questions that are both objective and critical in
groups. Together they will answer
the questions to be turned in. The
last twenty minutes will be used to answer and discuss and questions as a whole
class. Special Ed. students would
have been given the questions in advance to use while reading.
Groups will consist of a mix of ability levels.
On day five, students will be asked to do a research project on A Farewell to
Arms to be graded in both literature and writing class.
Most of the work will be done in writing class but some time will be
spent during research in literature class.
Students will be assigned groups for the first half of the project and
then the project will be introduced. It
is an internet based project. Students
will go to the computer lab and answer questions about the timeline posted on
the web. Students with disabilities
will be assisted in using the computer. Also,
their page limits will be different than the rest of the class. Students should
be through Book two.
Week two will start by answering any questions about the Internet project
and then will transition into a group discussion on chapters 25-31.
Again, special ed students only need to read through 28.
Students will chose the three most significant events that occurred in
each chapter and explain why they are important to the novel as a whole thus
far.
Students will use day seven as a research day.
They can catch up on reading (should be through Book 4), work on project
in computer lab or library, or discuss novel in groups.
The teacher will be available to answer any questions and to work with
special ed. Students on their projects.
Discussion on A Farewell to Arms will wrap up today with a main
focus on character development and relationships throughout the novel.
Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like White Elephants” will be
introduced and assigned for Thursday.
Thursday students will conduct a close reading of the text by pulling the
facts from the story. Also, the
teacher will lead a discussion based on commonly asked questions about the
story. These questions will be given to special ed. students prior
to discussion.
The unit on WWI will end by having the literature students conduct a
dramatic interpretation of either A Farewell to Arms or “Hills Like
White Elephants.” It will be totally improvisation. Four people will be in each group and they will have six
minutes to interpret the novel or story in their own words by acting it out.
Monday and Tuesday will be spent watching the film, In Love and War,
which was based on Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.
Also, their internet projects will be due on Wednesday so any questions
the students still have about the project will be addressed today.
Physics Lesson
Day one: Scalars and Vectors: Distinguish
between a scalar and a vector. Add and subtract vectors using the graphical method.
Multiply and divide vectors by scalars.
Definitions of: scalar, vector, resultant, distance, and displacement.
Demonstration: Vector addition
Purpose: Preview force as a vector quantity to demonstrate vector
addition.
Materials: Cart or table on wheels.
Short section review consisting of five questions, having the students put to
use the information they have just acquired from the lesson.
Day two: Discovery lab: Vector
Treasure Hunt
Students
will create a series of directions to lead to a specific object, follow
directions to locate a specific object, develop standard notation for writing
direction symbols, and generate a scale map.
Day three: Vector operations:
Identify appropriate coordinate systems for salving problems with
vectors. Apply the Pythagorean
Theorem and tangent function to calculate the magnitude and direction of a
resultant vector. Resolve vectors
into components using the sine and cosine functions.
Add vectors that are not perpendicular.
Work through examples and have students work practice problems in small groups,
also a short refresher on trigonometry.
Day four: Projectile motion:
Recognize examples of projectile motion. Describe
the path of a projectile as a parabola. Resolve
vectors into their components and apply the kinematic equations to solve
problems involving projectile motion.
Demonstration: Air resistance
Purpose: Show the effects of air resistance on the flight of a
projectile.
Quick lab: Projectile motion and the independence of the horizontal and
vertical velocities.
Days five through ten: Discussion of
projectile motion:
Lab: Projectile and Target
Questions – The greater the elevation of the board, the more difficult it is
to coordinate the launching of the balls. Explain.
If you were careful to simultaneously launch the balls, they collide
regardless of the launch velocity, the angle of elevation, or the distance to
the target. Explain.
Real life applications: Discussion of hitting targets and examples from World
War I. Activity involving students
hitting targets placed at different distances and using different launch angles.
Adaptations for students with
disabilities:
When you are discussing ideas in class:
keep the lights on so that students can see your lips
talk facing the students, do not turn your back
use a lot of examples while discussing topic
break steps into even smaller steps using very elementary language
have students with sight disabilities use their sense of touch
provide extra handouts, class notes, and directions
For the class participation:
have students read one on one
have another student take notes or share notes for those who need them
Group Work:
partner up some students who need extra guidance and example with students who
do have a clear understanding
make sure students know how to speak to a deaf student, speak to the student
directly
Tests/Quizzes:
give students who need it, a longer amount of time to take the test
provide study guides and sessions for students who need extra explanation
References:
Physics
Faughn, Jerry. Serway, Raymond. (2002). Holt Physics. pgs 82-122